


Vaasa-Nari

by jupiter23



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Angst, Fan Art, Hurt/Comfort, I'm only accepting about 12 percent of the feels incurred by the reading of this fic, M/M, Prompt Fic, TW: Blood, given that this fic was a prompt, hurt of the physical variety, tw: animal attack, tw: broken bones, tw: head injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 14:05:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14978747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jupiter23/pseuds/jupiter23
Summary: Vaasa-nari- (Shelesh)- a shared soul.Scott is injured while on a mission on Havarl. Gil blames himself.





	Vaasa-Nari

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jeannedarcprice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeannedarcprice/gifts).



> This was a prompt based on a piece of art drawn by jeannedarcprice. She was also awesome enough to beta read this for me, and she helped suggest the title. Major thanks for all of that!

 

Havarl was nice, Gil supposed, if you liked dark, intensely thick jungles and the fact that anyone venturing into them still needed to go while wearing full-body armor and with an armed escort. He remembered the reports from Scott and the rest of the squad when they first came here, back when they first met Jaal and before they fixed the vault. And, of course, long before they’d found Meridian and killed the Archon. According to those reports, the jungle that Daar Pelaav sat next to was far more dangerous back then. Roekaar and remnant bots were everywhere, and the most dangerous of the wildlife had this strange tendency to appear out of thin air.

Since that battle with the Archon and the activation of Meridian, however, a lot of what made this jungle dangerous was gone now. According to Scott, at least. The Roekaar were much fewer in number, though that might have had more to do with Scott exposing their leader Akksul as a madman than anything else. The animals were a lot calmer with the vault working properly, although aggressive and territorial predators were forever and always going to be aggressive and territorial. The remnant, on the other hand, were going to continue doing what remnant did when people happened to wander onto one of their sites—start shooting at them.  

Which was what Gil was waiting for to happen right at that moment as he, PeeBee, and SAM scanned consoles and destroyed bots at one of the remnant sites several kilometers into the jungle. This was Gil’s first trip outside of the Pelaav Research Station, which was usually as far away from the _Tempest_ as he normally had a reason to go when they were docked on Havarl. But then PeeBee had some idea about possibly integrating remnant tech into the _Tempest_ , and probably the Nomad, and maybe even the Nexus and the Initiative’s fleet of shuttles (assuming Scott could sweet-talk Tann and the rest of the powers that be into the idea, which, when PeeBee said those exact words, Scott had pulled a face that had the rest of the crew nearly laughing themselves sick), and Gil thought the idea had merit. SAM had concurred with him, and Scott agreed to let them look into it.

“You’re doing it again,” PeeBee pointed out, and Gil’s attention snapped back to her and away from their surroundings. Scott, Cora, Drack, and Jaal were all standing nearby with their guns at the ready, watching the jungle around them and chatting amongst themselves. The only part of their conversation Gil had spared the attention to catch was something about some of Jaal’s mothers coming to take a tour of the _Tempest_ while they were docked here. He’d been too busy trying to both work and mind his surroundings.

  _How do they do it?_ Gil wondered, and not for the first, or even the hundredth time. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Scott and everyone in his squad had combat experience in one form or another. Gil could multi-task as well as anyone else, but trying to do it while under threat of a sudden attack was a whole new level, and he had a new respect and appreciation for all of them.

“Can’t help it,” he answered to PeeBee’s observation as he finished yet another scan of a non-functioning console. “I keep waiting for the remnant to show up.”

“Pssh, don’t worry about that,” PeeBee said nonchalantly, waving her free hand at him. “I can promise you they’ll show up any second now.”

Gil rolled his eyes and made an exasperated noise.

“You know, you should consider talking to Lexi about becoming her nurse. Your bedside manner is _amazing_.” His voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Gil, I do believe that is the meanest thing you’ve ever said to me,” PeeBee retorted.

“That’s probably the meanest thing I’ve ever heard from him when he wasn’t talking to Kallo,” Drack said from his position a few feet away.

“Which is why we’re going to wrap this up and go back to the ship as soon as you’re done with that scan,” Scott said. He had still been facing the jungle when he’d spoken, so he didn’t see Gil’s grateful smile, but it didn’t matter. Gil would thank him properly later.

“Don’t worry, I’m nearly— _shit_ ,” PeeBee spat out, and Gil looked back at her in time to see her whip her pistol out and shoot down a remnant observer. Then several more remnant bots appeared, and PeeBee grabbed his hand and pulled him towards cover behind a nearby boulder just as everyone else opened fire on them.

“See? Told you they’d be here any second,” she said as she took down another observer.

“You’ll have to forgive me if I choose to stand by what I said, though,” Gil called to her as she flung herself out of cover, her body flaring with her biotics.

“I’m inclined to agree with Gil,” Jaal said as he took up PeeBee’s position, his rifle trained at something Gil couldn’t see from behind the rock. The small explosion that answered when he fired the gun suggested it used to be an assembler. “When you bring civilians to a hostile area with you, you keep comments like that to yourself.”

“Yeah, they’re tense enough as it is,” Cora added from wherever she was. “Saying things like that could cause them to panic and you to lose control of the situation.”

“While the three of you make a good point, we can all lecture PeeBee about battlefield etiquette regarding non-combatants later on when we’re not being shot at!” Scott ordered from somewhere else.

“Yeah, lecture PeeBee later,” PeeBee added. Jaal, who had ducked behind the boulder next to Gil to reload his rifle, only rolled his eyes.

“How about everyone just shut the hell up and shoot already?” Drack yelled, a tearing of metal punctuating his words.  

“What, you getting bored with tearing them apart with your bare hands?” PeeBee called back to him.

“PeeBee…” Scott warned.

“Not at all, just thought the rest of you wanted in on this fight,” Drack countered.

“ _Drack…_ ” Scott snapped.

If anything else was said after that, Gil didn’t catch it. Two observers suddenly appeared behind his and Jaal’s cover, and they were forced to scramble out for a nearby half-wall. From their new position, Gil could see the fight. There were several newly destroyed remnant bots littering the site, some of them still throwing out sparks. But there were still too many bots as far as Gil was concerned.

Gil was just wondering if this was normal for a wave of remnant defending one of their sites when Jaal rushed out of cover and charged off in the direction they’d come from, leading a breacher away from Gil that was immediately shot down by PeeBee. A second later, Scott broke his own cover, running hard for another half-wall. He then leaped off the top of the half-wall, and a discharge from his jump-jet helped him gain some additional height. He twisted in mid-air to adjust as his biotics lit up to give him even more momentum, and he landed to slug the ground a mere few inches from most of the remaining remnant bots.

And if that wasn’t the hottest goddamn thing Gil had ever seen…

The fight was over seconds later when the last two bots were shot down, and everyone rose from cover. “I detect no more remnant in the immediate vicinity,” SAM declared.

“All the same, I think it’s time to—“ Scott’s instructions ended abruptly as he spotted something behind Gil. Gil followed his line of sight, but all he saw was a large wall of blue a split second before he was tackled to the ground. 

Gil looked up in time to see Scott being lifted away from him, a massive fist wrapped around his body. “ _SCOTT_!!!” he screamed as the eiroch roared.

He scrambled back to his feet, getting ready to charge the animal. To do what, exactly, he couldn’t have said; he had come out here unarmed, and while he might have been able to hold his own in a hand-to-hand fight, an animal four times his size was just plain out of his league.

But then he felt a pair of arms wrapping around his from behind and dragging him backwards. He immediately started fighting against the tight grip. He needed to get to Scott, didn’t they understand that?!

“Damn it, Gil, stop struggling!” came PeeBee’s voice right next to his ear as she continued to drag him further away from the angry eiroch. Was it PeeBee who had him?

“It has Scott, we have to—“

“We can’t do anything to help him until we can make that thing let go of him,” PeeBee interrupted.

Before Gil could argue with her, the eiroch roared again, and it was like a hard slap to Gil’s awareness. Cora, Jaal, and Drack were circling the eiroch with their guns trained on it, looking for a clear shot. In the creature’s fist, Scott struggled hard against its grip.  He managed to work his right arm free, giving him access to his omni-blade. The blade extended, and Scott plunged it into the eiroch’s wrist.

The eiroch roared in pain as the blade snapped off in its flesh. Rather than letting Scott go, however, it’s fist tightened, and Gil could hear the sickening crack of metal plating as Scott yelped in pain right before losing consciousness.

Gil might have screamed—he wasn’t aware if he had or not—and renewed his fight against PeeBee’s grip. Scott _wasn’t_ dead, he _couldn’t_ be dead, he had to get in there and _do_ something _damn it_ —

A new, more krogan-like battle cry joined the cacophony in the clearing as Drack finally found an opening and started firing his rifle into the eiroch’s mouth. This was enough for the animal to finally drop Scott, and Cora and Jaal also began shooting the eiroch in earnest.

With the eiroch’s attention on everyone else, PeeBee finally released Gil and raced to join the fight. As the four of them lured the animal away, Gil scrambled over to Scott.

“ _No no no no_ , Scott, baby, open your eyes,” Gil begged. SAM was saying something to him, but he ignored the AI as he started checking Scott over. He gently turned Scott’s face towards him, and a trickle of blood ran down his forehead from his hairline. There was a smear of blood on the tree root right under his head, meaning there was a pretty good chance he had a concussion now. When he looked down, he could see blood seeping between the new cracks in Scott’s armor. Gil didn’t have to have any kind of medical training to know that wasn’t a good sign. He had to get this hard suit off of Scott _now_.

As he reached for the clasps to start undoing the chest plate, however, a sharp electrical jolt raced up his arm from his omni-tool.

“ _Gil_!” SAM said sharply. “Moving the Pathfinder at all right now is not recommended. You could further aggravate his injuries, which could kill him.”

“He’ll die if we _don’t_ do something!” Gil yelled at the AI, and he tried reaching for the clasps on Scott’s armor again. He was stopped by another electrical shock in his arm, this one slightly harder than the last one.

 “The Pathfinder has six broken ribs, two fractured vertebrae, a broken arm, multiple lacerations, internal bleeding, and a concussion,” SAM argued. “Moving him could result in a punctured lung or a severed spinal cord, or make the internal bleeding worse. I’ve already administered a dose of medi-gel through his omni-tool, but until Dr. T’Perro arrives, there is nothing more we can do aside from keeping him still.”

“Lexi’s coming?” Gil murmured, and then realized how stupid that sounded. Of course SAM sent a distress call to the _Tempest_ , probably the moment the eiroch had grabbed Scott.

“Yes, and she’ll be accompanied by Specialist Kosta, Ms. Nyx, and several resistance fighters,” SAM confirmed. “Their shuttle will arrive in a few minutes.”   

Before Gil could start breathing again, however, another roar from the eiroch rent the air, and he looked up in time to see someone—Cora, he realized a second later—go flying into a nearby tree. At almost the same moment, Drack dove to the side of the creature and swung his hammer into the side of its knee.

“SAM, think you could tell our back-up to hurry the hell up? We’re almost out of ammo,” Cora said as she staggered back to her feet.

“Some of us _are_ out of ammo,” PeeBee chimed in. Sure enough, her pistol was holstered at her hip, and she was down to using her biotics. Not that it seemed to be doing much good. While the eiroch was bleeding rather profusely in several places, it was still upright and coming at them. And almost as if he were punctuating PeeBee’s statement, Jaal managed to fire off two more shots before his rifle clicked uselessly. He swore heavily in Shelesh as he holstered it to his back and drew a long, lethal looking dagger from somewhere under his rofjinn and joined Drack in trying to kill the animal by hand.

 _Fuck_. They’d all be dead before help reached them.

Gil started looking around. There had to be something here he could use, even if all it did was distract the eiroch until Liam and Vetra showed up— _there_ , lying on the ground several feet away, was Scott’s Avenger rifle, dropped when he’d dove in between Gil and the eiroch. Gil scrambled for it.

“ _Gil, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?! Get out of sight!_ ” Drack shouted as Gil leveled the gun to his shoulder and aimed at the eiroch. He was suddenly grateful Scott had insisted on spending all that time modifying this gun to make it both light and to improve its accuracy. While his target was pretty hard to miss, he still wasn’t exactly an expert with these things.

Ignoring everyone else’s protests, Gil pointed the gun in the general direction of the eiroch’s mouth and pulled the trigger. He didn’t let go until the thermal clip was completely empty.

No sooner had the last bullet fired from the gun than it occurred to Gil that even if he could have gotten to Scott and the remaining thermal clip he was sure he had on his belt, he had no idea how to reload the rifle. Not that it would have mattered anyway, since the eiroch’s attention was now back on him.

But the animal only had time to limp forward about two steps. Liam charged forward from the jungle and leapt onto the eiroch’s back, both of his omni-blades plunging into the sides of its neck. A second later, Vetra and four angaran resistance fighters opened fire. About two seconds after that, the eiroch finally fell to the ground and died.

Gil turned back to Scott to find that Lexi and an angaran medic were already there, gently lifting him onto a stretcher.

“…needs immediate surgery to stop the bleeding,” Lexi was telling the other doctor, and the fragment of that sentence was enough to have Gil’s blood running cold. The angaran’s mouth moved then, probably asking Lexi a question, but Gil suddenly couldn’t hear anything anymore. It wasn’t until the rifle was being gently pried out of his hands that he was aware that someone was standing next to him, calling his name. Two someones, as a matter of fact.

“...Gil, come on, let’s head for the shuttle,” Vetra said softly, one hand on his shoulder, her own gun still in the other. Gil blinked rapidly and glanced over to see that Jaal was on his other side, now holding Scott’s gun and looking ready to pull Gil into his arms and not let go. Gil hoped that he wouldn’t, because if he did, he’d lose it right there. He nodded weakly in response and let the two of them guide him towards the waiting shuttle.

 

The shuttle ride back was a blur. Lexi had said something to him, but Gil couldn’t for the life of him have recalled what it was. Once back on the Tempest, Lexi and the angaran doctor disappeared into the medical bay with Scott. Cora followed right behind them, not even bothering to make the detour to change out of her armor. Gil felt like he was on auto-pilot as he stripped off his hard suit and put his uniform back on. He then returned to the hallway outside of the med bay, where everyone else, including the angaran resistance fighters, had gathered to wait on news. Gil had the vague thought that he recognized one of the resistance members, a female angaran who was speaking in a low voice to Jaal. One of his mothers? Gil knew he had met her before, but he just didn’t have the energy to try and remember where or when, or even what her name was.

The group only had a few minutes to wait before Cora emerged, Scott’s back-up pistol and the parts of his armor cradled in her arms, coated in far too much of his blood.

“They’re still trying to stop the bleeding,” she announced, looking at Gil even though she was addressing the group. “And Lexi won’t be able to say anything certain until she can do that. The only thing she does know is that if Scott hadn’t been wearing his hard suit, he’d already be dead…”

Liam had said something then, but Gil couldn’t hear it over the sudden buzzing in his ears. All he could do was stare at the cracked and blood-covered N7 hard suit in Cora’s arms. It was funny—and if Gil had been able to make himself _do_ anything at all, he might have even laughed at the thought—but it occurred to him that this was kind of the second time Alec Ryder had saved his son from death using his own armor. Scott hadn’t been able to bring himself to store his father’s armor away in a box, and he _really_ hadn’t liked the idea of it decorating a mannequin in a museum at some point. Alec had gone through the trouble of bringing that armor with him from the Milky Way, and it deserved to be worn, so worn it Scott had.

Would he ever be able to wear it again?

Would he even survive long enough to worry about it?

Cora said something then that Gil couldn’t hear—an entire conversation had likely happened around him—and walked away with Liam and Vetra trailing behind her.

Gil’s lungs suddenly felt too tight. He needed to get out of this corridor _now_. Silently, he turned and headed straight for the Pathfinder’s quarters. He didn’t stop until the door was shut behind him.

Despite the fact that he was now alone, he was still only able to draw in a shallow breath. He staggered over to the sofa and sank down onto it, resting his elbows on his knees and burying his head in his hands, fingers pulling at his hair in an effort to feel something other than terrified and helpless.

“SAM?” he called to the AI without looking up.

“Yes?” Was it Gil’s imagination, or did SAM sound as dejected as he felt?

“How is he? Just…just tell me _something_. _Anything_.”

“Dr. T’Perro is still trying to get his internal bleeding under control. Even if she is successful, there is a good chance the Pathfinder will remain unconscious for quite some time due to his concussion.” Gil couldn’t stop the broken sound that escaped from his throat. “If I may,” SAM continued before Gil could break down completely, “I would urge you not to give up hope. Dr. T’Perro is one of the most skilled and capable physicians in the Initiative. She has no intention of allowing Scott to die.”

Gil couldn’t bring himself to react to SAM’s words. Lexi would certainly be touched at SAM’s vote of confidence, but at the moment, he just couldn’t bring himself to care. He honestly couldn’t bring himself to care about much of anything at all.

“Sahuna Ama Darav is asking for permission to come in,” SAM suddenly announced. “Shall I let her?”

“Fine, whatever,” Gil murmured. Jaal’s true mother, he remembered now. He’d only met her a couple of times and had barely spoken to her. He couldn’t imagine what she’d want now, so he didn’t bother looking up as the door slid open. He knew it was rude, but that was something else he couldn’t bring himself to care about.

“Jaal is contacting Sara to tell her what has happened,” Sahuna said as she sat down next to Gil. And now he felt even worse. It hadn’t occurred to him at all to call Sara and tell her that her brother may be dying at that very moment.

Gil glanced up at Sahuna then, intending to say something. Probably to ask her to thank Jaal for him. But as soon as he took in her tear-filled eyes, the words died in his mouth. And she must have seen something in his face, because she wordlessly opened her arms.

It was like a dam breaking with that gesture. Gil slumped into her arms, buried his face in her shoulder, and started sobbing brokenly as Sahuna pulled him into her lap and held him tightly.

 

Gil had no idea how much time had passed. He had eventually stopped crying out of exhaustion, but it only evolved into something between dozing and staring off into the middle distance. Sahuna, bless her, had held him the entire time and said nothing. She had wept with him, and eventually started humming what Gil could only guess was an angaran lullaby. It was very soothing, he had to admit. Maybe she’d teach it to him later, if he could remember to ask her.

The slide of the door opening and shutting again sounded like it was far away. He was in no mood to deal with anyone else. Maybe Sahuna would be good enough to send them on their way…

Gil actually blinked in mild surprise when Lexi perched on the coffee table in front of them.

“I’ve gotten the bleeding to stop,” she said. “However, he’s lost a lot of blood, and he’s still unconscious. His broken bones are set, and it’s something of a minor miracle that his broken vertebrae haven’t severed his spinal cord. But I’ve done as much as I can for him here. I’ve already asked Kallo to take us to the Nexus as soon as possible.”

“Is he…” Gil started, and then found himself unable to finish asking the question.

Lexi was quick to pick up on his point, however.

“If he makes it through the night, then there’s a better chance that he’ll make a full recovery,” she answered. “You may go and sit with him, if you like,” she said in answer to his next question. Gil managed a weak, but nonetheless grateful nod, and pushed himself to his feet.

Sahuna and Lexi walked to the medical bay with him. The hallway outside it was thankfully devoid of people. The resistance fighters had probably left altogether, and everyone else was likely getting the ship ready to leave. Sahuna gave one final reassuring squeeze to Gil’s shoulder before she left, presumably to look for Jaal before she left the ship.

“I’m going to go and get some sleep,” Lexi said. “SAM is monitoring Ryder’s vitals, and he’ll let me know the moment anything changes.”

“Thanks, Lexi,” Gil said as Lexi turned and headed for the crew quarters, the door to the med bay sliding shut behind her.

Gil turned to the one occupied bed in the room. A blanket covered Scott up to his waist. His left arm was wrapped with a splint, and his ribs were wrapped in bandaging to keep them still. Medi-gel covered wherever Lexi and the angaran doctor had made their incisions, as well as the worst of the cuts. Large expanses of Scott’s torso were otherwise covered in livid bruising, and whatever skin wasn’t darkened with bruises was far too pale. The only reason Gil didn’t break down again was the shallow, yet gentle rise and fall of Scott’s chest.

Drawing in as deep a breath as he could manage, he crossed the room to Lexi’s desk, grabbed her chair, and pulled it next to Scott’s bed. He sat down and took Scott’s good hand in one of his.

“Scott, I’m sorry,” he murmured, smoothing his hair back from his forehead with his free hand. “I’m so sorry. I feel like this is my fault…If I had just been paying attention…” His voice caught, and he clenched his eyes shut as he fought to regain control of his voice. “ _Damn it_ , just… I don’t even know if you can hear me right now, just… just wake up, okay? Because I’m not going anywhere until you do.” He pressed a kiss to Scott’s forehead and laid his head down on the bed.

 

Gil lost track of time again as he drifted in and out of something resembling sleep. Actual sleep just wasn’t going to happen tonight, not until he knew whether or not Scott was going to be okay. No one else had come into the med bay, and he supposed it was both a good and a bad thing that Lexi hadn’t turned up at any point, either. Good, because it meant Scott hadn’t suddenly taken a turn for the worst. Bad, because nothing had changed, either.

Which was why he initially thought he was imagining the gentle squeezing around his occupied hand. But when it happened again, Gil jerked upright, completely alert, and just in time to watch as Scott’s eyelids began to flutter.

And then finally— _finally_ —the most beautiful blue eyes in the universe slid open, and Gil nearly started crying again.

“Gil?” Scott’s voice was raspy with pain and just barely above a whisper, but Gil still sent a silent thank-you to every deity that might be listening that he was getting to hear it again.

“Yes, baby, I’m right here,” he said.

“The eiroch…how did…” His question ended on a hiss of pain as he tried to move his broken arm.

Gil tightened his grip on his good hand in a silent plea to stop him from moving and gave him a brief rundown of what happened after he’d lost consciousness, and then told him about his injuries and why he needed to lie still.

“Shit,” Scott exhaled when Gil was finished.

“Yeah,” Gil agreed.

A weak smile pulled at Scott’s lips.

“And my back is honest-to-God broken, but I can still feel my legs?” he said. “I’d laugh if it didn’t hurt so much.”

Gil might have laughed at the thought too, except…

“Scott, I… If I had been paying more attention—“

Scott stopped him with a tug on his hand.

 “Gil, don’t you _dare_ blame yourself for this,” he said with more strength than it seemed like he had.

“But I—“

“ _Stop_ ,” Scott interrupted. “Gil, I would have let that thing _eat_ me if it meant you were safe.”

Gil wanted to argue with him, because _how fucking dare_ he say something like that, his own safety meant _nothing_ if it came at the cost of Scott’s _life_ , but his throat started tightening and a few tears slid down his cheeks. All he could do was clench his eyes shut and shake his head.

“Hey, come here,” Scott said, pulling on his hand to get him closer. Gil fell into the hug that Scott was trying for, keeping his arms at Scott’s shoulders to avoid aggravating the rest of his injuries. Scott managed to lift his arm around Gil’s shoulders, and his fingers started stroking his hair. “None of this is your fault,” Scott said as Gil leaned into his shoulder and drew in slow breaths.

“You nearly died,” Gil choked out. “And I couldn’t—“ he bit back a sob, “I never want—not for me, I’m not—“

“I really hope the next words out of your mouth aren’t ‘not worth it,’” Scott interrupted with a pull at Gil’s hair.

“But I’m—“

“Marry me.”

Gil froze. All of his arguments evaporated, and he lifted off of Scott just enough to look him in the eyes. He was met with a steady, clear gaze.

“Despite my head injury, I’m serious,” Scott said as Gil continued to stare at him in stunned silence. “I love you more than anything, and you’re very much worth being killed by a rampaging animal. So… marry me?”

 Tears welled up in Gil’s eyes all over again, and he didn’t bother holding them back this time.

“ _Yes_ ,” he rasped out. “You _fucking asshole_ , yes, I’ll marry you…” And then Scott smiled and pulled him down, and their lips met in one of the best kisses Gil could ever remember having.

 

In the hallway right outside the doors of the med bay, cheers rose up from the crew, and Jaal and Liam slapped each other a high-five. SAM had accessed the video feed in the medical bay and sent it to Lexi’s omni-tool as soon as she had left Gil with Scott so she could look in on them every so often. But then SAM had announced that Scott had regained consciousness, and Lexi had headed straight for the med bay.

But it turned out that same announcement had gone out to everyone else as well, and the next thing Lexi knew, they all appeared just as quickly. And then Gil and Scott had started chatting, and Lexi halted everyone. It wouldn’t hurt to give them a minute or two alone.

And now they all had more of a reason to celebrate than the seemingly trite-in-comparison fact that Scott was going to survive his injuries.

“About damn time,” Drack said.

“I’m going to call Sara and deliver the good news,” Jaal said excitedly, immediately turning towards the ladders that led to the second level.

“I’ll go with you,” Suvi said, following right behind him. “Oh, this is so romantic…”

“I’m coming too! I want to see her face when you tell her,” Liam said, joining Jaal and Suvi.

“You both owe me a hundred credits,” PeeBee said to Cora and Vetra. “You can pay me back in booze the next time we’re on Kadara.”

“Um, we’ll pay you back in booze when we’re docked on _Aya_ ,” Cora argued.

“Yeah, if we let you get shit-faced on Kadara, you’re going to wake up missing a vital organ or two, and then you’ll blame us,” Vetra added, and the three of them followed Jaal, Suvi, and Liam upstairs, presumably to the research table so Cora could continue working on Scott’s damaged armor.

“Seems I better get us back to the Nexus as soon as possible. I don’t think I want to deal with Gil’s bitching if we take much longer,” Kallo said, heading for the bridge.

“I suppose I’ll go put in a call of my own to Kesh,” Drack said. “She’s fond of these idiots for some reason. This’ll make her day.” And then Lexi was alone in the corridor, smiling after everyone.

She supposed she ought to go in there, now. Scott needed to be checked over, and would probably want a dose of pain medicine. Lexi looked down at her omni-tool one more time, getting ready to cut the feed. On the screen, however, Scott and Gil were locked in a rather passionate-looking kiss.

Lexi pulled her hand away from her omni-tool and stepped back from the door. Giving them yet another minute wouldn’t hurt anything. 

 


End file.
